The Semi-Finals: Plants That Face a Radiant Heat
Aether walked into the arena, immediately understanding why the location was known as Tlaloc's Tears. He breathed in the scenery, but only for a moment. Soon, this location would be stained by battle. His leg wound still hadn't completely healed from his last battle, but the cauterization of his wound, alongside the assistance of his Healing Vines had allowed him to stand on his leg without pain. However, a strong hit to his knee would prove detrimental. He wouldn't give his opponent the opportunity, especially since they wouldn't know about this structural weakness. His injury remained hidden underneath his pants, with thin vines wrapped around it to aid in the healing process. He removed them from his leg with his magic, causing them to shrivel into nothing with his Desertification. "Let the semi-finals of the Jigoku Games begin." Walking into the arena, Santino takes the time to observe his immediate vicinity, while at the same time dropping multiple seeds unto the floor as he made his way to meet his opponent for this match. Glancing over the numerous waterfalls that were gushing out of the large rocky mountain sides of the landscape, spilling over the rocky surface that paved over the outskirts of the landscape, creating a large body of water that consumed the vast majority of the terrain around them. Growing ever closer, the various broken pillars and rock formations around decorated the scenery, leaving behind multiple ruins scattered around the soon to be battlefield. Now within his field of vision, Santino begins to approach his adversary, only to realize just who it really was. "Never thought I'd get to meet Gunfire's old guild master. If were being honest, I was rooting for you guys to win this years magic games." Stretching out his arms, multiple vines began to emerge out of his sleeves, casting his Molding Magic to fashion himself a pair of plant-like daggers on the palms of his hands, preparing himself. A smiled curled onto the Dragon Slayer's face. "A fan I see. Although, they're my former guild, I was upset to see they had scored a bit less favorably than they had under my leadership. I'm certain William will pull them together in time for next year though." Aether's body language was relaxed, almost as though he wasn't even prepared for combat. Yet, this was merely a facade. "I'll be nice, and let you take the first strike." Santino took a moment to take in Aether's request, knowing full well that he was drawing him to attack first. However, not knowing the full extent of his abilities, Santino takes the cautious approach of taking him on from a distance rather than move in carelessly. With a wave of his hand, he pulls out a hand full of seeds out of his front pocket, transferring over a small portion of his own magic into five individual seeds before gently placing them over the palm of his hand, throwing them directly into the floor. Imbuing them with his Green Magic, casted his Greenman's Walker spell, and in an instant, five large pods emerged from the ground, each releasing identical copies of Santino to the surface. With what amounted with six Santinos in total, all facing at Aether's direction, each of them began to conjure a series of weapons, arming themselves so as to combat their mutual foe. "You wanted me to go first, so here it is, but before we start...later...," in a quick dash, the original Santino began to sprint toward the opposite direction, heading back to where he came from by fleeing from the scene with a single clone accompanying him in his retreat into the ruins. With four copies staying behind to face the dragon slayer, they began to circle him in a circle, each of them wielding plant-like swords that began to drip with acidic liquids streaming down the blade's edge. Being just as cautious, a single copy of Santino moved in swinging his sword in an angular direction, swerving the sword toward his head while the rest of the group stayed back to observe Aether's movements. Aether sniffed the air, breathing in the smell of poison dripping from the clones' weapons. He unsheathed Hathor, coating the blade in his plasma, and cutting through the organic sword of the clone before it could harm him. He ducked to the ground, touching his hand to the grass that covered the ground. A pulse of magical energy came from his body. "I'm sorry." The plant warriors created by Santino withered away, but not just them. All the moss, grass, any plant life was turned to dust. There was nothing to impede his smell anymore or sensory abilities anymore. Locating Santino at that point was simple. At lightning speed, he flew towards the ruins, quickly finding Santino's position. All this happening so fast, Aether's target likely wouldn't have had much time to get very far. He aimed a plasma-enhanced punch toward Santino's jaw, aiming to daze him for a minute or so to make him easy prey for his next assault. Using the additional clone he had made earlier, it pushed him out of the way, so as to take on the full brunt of his attack as the burst of energy from Aether's punch completely decimated his head, reducing him into nothing but a headless figure standing directly beside him. A small bead of sweat fall down his cheek at the turn of events, nearly feeling the blistering heat radiating from the surface of his hand. Jumping backward on his feet, Santino takes the time take in the change of the environment on the ground, noticing the sudden desertification taking place around him. "So, you can use Green Magic too," taking notice of the sloppy work, it was obvious that he had a rather ordinary degree of skill in this type of magic. Stamping his leg, a wave of green light spread out along the ground, revitalizing the earth through the use of Accretion Floor to bring life back to the landscape. With numerous flowers and plants surrounding them, Santino kneels down and slaps his hands together, placing one hand unto his own body with the other unto the floor,"Plant-Make: Ogre." A large, towering giant began to grow from the rock floor, and with it, a massive club emerging from the floor alongside it; with a savage roar, the beast charges forward, swinging his large club at Aether's general direction with a blind fury. During this time however, the seeds that Santino had dropped at the start of the battle began to grow in size and length, moving inside the river out of sight so as to circle around in between of Santino and Aether at the edge of the water, preparing itself to cast a spell at his signal. "Pretty big creation," said Aether. "But you know what they say. The bigger they are, the harder they fall." The ogre lacked coordination, making it rather simple to dodge to the creatures first club swing, jumping on top of it. As he ran up the club, the places where Aether's feet touched ignited in flames, making his way up to the arm, shoulder, and finally hitting it in the head. He didn't use much force, just enough to cause the behemoth's face to catch fire. From his movements, the entire half of the creature's upper body which it held the club in had been ignited. "Plants burn too easily." Aether jumped off of it as the flames continued to spread across the behemoth's body, turning it to ash. As he descended, Aether charged a blast of plasma in his hands, and fired a Plasma Dragon's Electron Cannon '''towards Santino. "You should know that every rose has it's thorns," as his attack was moving toward him, Santino refused to move from his spot so as to keep his opponent in place. In the meantime, multiple purple-colored lilacs began to grow along behind Aether, keeping themselves out of sight by growing along his feet, thanks to the roots that he had planted previously before, that had been spreading out alongside him, an effect attributed to the vines growing around them. Channeling his Fighting Magic, Santino hardened the surface of his arms with his Iron Shell as much as he could do, crossing them in the form of an "X" so as to reduce the overall damage he was about to take. With a thunderous roar, Aether's cannon hit him square square in his forearms, sending him flying through the air as the intensity of attack caused his skin to burn, sending a burning sensation downs his hands. On his side however, during the entire endeavor, the plants located directly behind him, his Deadman's Flowers, released a miasma of smoke that enveloped the area during the course that Santino allowed himself to receive his attack. Aether landed on the ground after sending back Santino, his smoke filling the area. It began to burn his skin and lungs as he took in the smallest breath. He immediately coated his body in his '''Plasma Dragon's Scales, nullifying any further effect the venom would have on his body. Unfortunately, he still couldn't breath. His scales increased in size to a medium-sized sphere surrounding his body, eradicating the venom in the area as it was burned away. He deactivated the Scales, just long enough to get a good breath in, before reactivating the scales. Despite the smoke also obscuring his vision, he couldn't hide from his ability to sense magical signatures. He flew towards Santino with the same speed he used before, aiming another devastating punch to his jaw. This time, Aether was locked onto the largest source of Santino's magical energy, meaning that only Santino himself, regardless of whether or not he created any more clones, would stick out like a sore thumb. With the speed he was moving in, it was pointless for Santino to bother himself with dodging or evading with his incoming attack. From his last attempts, his intentions were obvious, a strong enough blow to his jaw would certainly send his brain scrambling against the inside of his head, immobilizing him as a result, which was a rather common technique used by most other boxers and fighters. With a straight face, Santino stares at his attacker, locking him dead in the eye, simply telling him "Rubber Shell," with the words uttered, Aether's punch came crashing down on his jaw. However, rather than the him feeling the crushing and crackling texture of skin and bone breaking under his fist, Santino's skin was reminiscent to a bouncy surface, as Aether were punching a balloon. With the strength behind his punch, it immediately sent him flying once more, but rather than fall hard on his back, Santino was rebounding off the ground as if he were some kind of rubber ball, and by the end of it, he was back on his feet. Despite the burning sensations along his arms, Santino was relatively fine, unscathed by his attack. On the other hand, he couldn't same the same for his opponent. Shortly after his attack, Aether's vision began to blur tremendously, with a painful irritation spreading across his eyes only intensifying. Blisters and swelling began to spread across his skin, only dwarfed by effects taking place in his lungs and mouth, as a burning tightness spread across his chest, impairing his breathing to a degree. Santino observed with fascination at the effects his deadly venom was having while coursing through his opponent's body, knowing full well that the effects were only going to get worse over time. What made matters worse, the flowers that Aether had burned away only succeeded in releasing an even greater level concentration of poison around them, now consuming their immediate vicinity. Santino took a deep before, before turning to face his oppoent, "that sensation your feeling, it's called 'dying' home slice." The ground, and the surrounding plant became saturated with the looming venom hanging over them, poisoning them as well, thus making all Green Magic spells toxic when cast. With his Plant-Make, he produced multiple wooden spikes around him, now quickly spreading to his foe while coated in poison. Aether slammed his fist into the ground. Desertification being used once again to eradicate the remaining flowers as well as Santino's incoming attack. His Scales provided an ample defense. They ionized the air around him before it could be breathable, burning the poison away before it could touch his skin, as well as preventing Aether from accidentally inhaling it in the first place. However, he still couldn't breath. With his hand still on the ground, a pillar of earth shot up out of the ground from beneath him, raising him outside of the range of Santino's poisonous cloud. Aether cut his flesh using his sword, Hathor, and wrapped his Healing Vines around the wound. The poison that had been introduced into his body began to be sucked out through it, allowing Aether to recover. "Your magic is quite impressive!" called down Aether. "Anyone else might have been defeated by this technique. By the way, I haven't been trying to kill you. It seems you don't hold the same reservations. Should I change my approach." Aether stood up from his kneeling position. He held out his hand as his magical energy charged into his hand, forming the shape of a sphere. He awaited his opponent's reply. Santino spit at the ground and shrugged at his question, "I'm just kinda winging it if were being honest, I don't want to win, but then again, I can't see losing either, so I guess you can say I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place," once again using his Green Magic, Santino began to bring life back to the ruined landscape, a habit that was becoming more pronounce the longer he was fighting his opponent. Rather than go after Aether directly, Santino would take on a more indirect approach to him. Generating a vast forest of trees with his Dark Black Forest spell, Santino began to blend away from his line of sight behind the grand mangrove before him. Not wanting to take any chances, Santino was releasing a steady stream of his magic so as to negate the effects of Aether's Desertification from affecting the forest before him. From that point on, Santino remained hidden deep into the forest's contours, with a heavy purple fog hanging around the air, all the while placing a single hand on one of the large wooden structures so as to keep track of what is going on in his surroundings. With the forest growing, the roots began to spread their vines along the tall tower where Aether resided, quickly spreading to catch him by the legs. He felt it. The movement of Santino's feet upon the ground. The growth of plant life. The steady stream of magic that Santino was emitting. The vines crawling up his pillar. Aether could feel it all. Santino had not yet discerned his method for finding his position. It was not sight or smell, which were still useful, but Aether's ability to sense magic, assisted by a Seismic Sense. "If he keeps this up to negate my Desertification, then he'll burn through his magical energy before I can do it myself," thought Aether. "Let's not get cocky though. You know there are people out there stronger than you." Using his sensory abilities, he found Santino's position beneath the trees. The sphere was ready. With Santino's own vision likely being blocked by his trees, he wouldn't have enough time to dodge the airborne spell. He threw it down towards Santino, his Plasma Dragon's Blue Bomb, which would create a large explosion when it hit it's target or the ground where he stood, the blast radius being too large to avoid so easily. Testing how effective Santino's energy stream was, Aether sent a pulse of Desertification through his tower to destroy Santino's vines. If this failed however, his plasma would be more than enough to finish the job when they reached his feet. Santino began to rub his eyes, tearing a little after a long yawn under the shade of the tree, he carefully outstretches his sleeves while carefully avoiding the burned area near his hand to check the time on his watch. Upon closer inspection, it was half past twelve, realizing that this fight had been going on for well over 30 minutes, he picks himself up from the hard floor only to pat the dirt off his rear end. Even from a distance, Santino could feel Aether exerting his magic over his vines, rippling across from him like a pebble falling into a puddle; with his spell still active, Aether's Desertification and his own Accretion Floor were canceling each other out, leaving his plants in the same state of being, unaltered in their movement and continuing their their mission of wrapping around their target. In the forest however, Santino was ready to begin his counterattack, with his once pressing hand sinking into the tree, Santino began merging his entire body with it through his Great Tree Arc, sending his body elsewhere through the intricate system of roots spreading out along the entire ecosystem they were in, placing himself in the one place Aether would least suspect to look. In the meantime, Santino's forest was still growing and spreading out, consuming the ruins and nearby architecture with a jungle of plants that began to produce an even greater number of trees. Aether still didn't move from his perch. His Scales activated once again, only around his legs to prevent them from touching him, and burning them away as a result. As Santino merged with the tree, it became more difficult to discern his position, as all the trees bore his magical signature. However, the largest source of his magical energy was still easy to follow. It moved wherever Santino went. Aether created another sphere of plasma in his hands. He waited for Santino to surface to attack. That moment would be when he acted, him being unprepared for the sudden and speedy strike. Santino's magic energy began to become more and more difficult to follow, only to vanish a moment later mainly due to the direction he was moving through his merging with the trees: underground. Expanding the roots of the trees above ground, Santino was delving as deeply as he could underground, eventually reaching the farthest end of the earth he could access with his Green Magic plants, separating himself as far as possible from the the arena above him, mainly as a precaution for his next move. Slapping his hands together, his entire frame began to glow an intense green light that began to spread alongside him, and with a violent roar, Santino bellowed "Super Synthesis!" As if on cue, the numerous plants on the surface began to rampage. From Aether's position, it was obvious that the entirety of his vicinity began to change in a negative way, the vast source of water that filled this arena in excess began to drain, the rocks nearby were eroding, the natural light that filled the area began to darken, and all the plants that Santino himself didn't create began to wither and die. All the nutrients that made up this location were being consumed by Santino's forest, causing them to grow to monumental proportions and an incredibly rapid pace to the point of branching out in all directions. The tower of earth Aether was standing on began to crack and deteriorate, with a wave of vines coming from various directions, each sprouting the same purple flowers from last time over the surface. However, deep underground, Santino was gathering magic energy, preparing himself to cast a very special spell for Aether. Aether recognized the poisonous flowers and cloaked his entire body in his Scales. That's when he flew downwards, propelling himself forward with his plasma, and the heat from his plasma protecting him from the plants, burning through them as he descended. He slammed into the ground, turning into sand, hardening it with Sediment to prevent him from sinking himself. "Sink!" The ground below him suddenly began to go downwards into the ground. With the arena's new sandlike properties from Santino's spell absorbing all nutrients, it acted like a sinkhole, enveloping the plants that Santino had created, and falling deep into the ground to follow their creator to where he had gone. Aether transformed into plasma, flying above the sinkhole he had created. Once again, Aether was surrounded by the same purple miasma from earlier that had been present nearly at the beginning of their fight, adding additional volumes of it after he had burned the numerous vines during his descent. Weaving them together, the plants that were falling down the sinkhole began to change shape, transforming into numerous Venus Sky Eaters that began to protrude from the sinkhole's walls, quickly making their way toward their prey, with acidic liquids running down their overextended mouths. Meanwhile, Santino was moving around deeply in the clandestine earth, still very much fused with his plants and continuing to gather even more magic in secret. In order to confront Aether face-to-face while still keeping himself in place, he uses his molding magic to produce ten copies of himself, with each clone emerging from the trees around the forest in a manner very reminiscent to his own merging ability, slowly traversing the jungle to greet their common foe as a single entity. "Sorry If I can't see right now...," one of the copies remarked, "but I'm a bit busy doing my own thing," shouted another clone on the opposite end. Among every single one of them, a strange orange colored flower began to grow around their backs, flourishing into a bright flower as a single Santinos clasped his hands together, charging forward with the intention of attacking him head on while two other copies would rush him from the back. Aether was still protected from the poisonous gas by his Scales, but he still couldn't breath. He quickly weaved his fingers together, sending forth a net of plasma in the form of his Plasma Dragon's Arc Net, dicing them into small pieces before they could even get near him. However, even if he couldn't sense their presence before, Santino was foolish in even speaking through a clone, removing any surprise he might have. As they rushed him, Aether expanded his Scales into the size of a sphere around him. The clones that made contact with it would be incinerated, while Santino himself would be burned and pushed away. Aether, propelled himself upwards outside of the cloud of poison to deactivate his Scales again, and take a deep breath. Aether still hadn't launched an attack since the beginning of their fight. He could still sense Santino's decreasing magic power. "Still spreading himself too thin," Aether mumbled to himself. He awaited Santino's next attack. Not entirely surprised on the outcome of his attack, it was nonetheless expected, as two of the Santinos on the ground began to cast a single spell together that was undoubtedly his Greenhouse Coliseum, causing the vast majority of his trees, vines, roots, flowers, and additional organic material to wrap themselves together to form a large dome, entrapping Aether and his clones inside for a cage match. Hardening their bodies with Fighting Magic with the same spell Santino had used to block Aether's Electron Cannon, giving them an even greater ability to resist the intense heat his attacks had, if only for a small margin. Their very bodies darkened with an intense metallic hue through the use of their Iron Shell, a large canopy began to carry three Santinos toward Aether, with another one merging with the giant dome that made up their surroundings, only to emerge falling directly on top of him from high above the dome. Meanwhile, the forest was still growing in size, now reaching a considerably massive size in terms diameter and length. Aether's magical aura flared up as Santino came towards him. However, his aura wasn't blue. It turned red as he tapped into the power of his Erebus power, moving even faster than before, and having even more available power. The clone that came from above Aether, the Dragon Slayer shot his Plasma Dragon's String from the fingers on his right hand, aiming to wrap them around the clone who would be unable to change his trajectory. Quickly making the string go taught, he would throw the clone into the other three approaching ones, using the extra defense they had made for themselves act against them as equal forces collided into one another. It would leave them dazed long enough for Aether to blast them away with a more casual blast of plasma. If their defenses prevented them from being outright obliterated or damaged beyond repair, the force of the blast would send them hurtling back towards the ground. Awaiting his opponent's next move, Aether couldn't help but smile. It may have been Erebus' influence, but this was starting to get fun. Bolstering their speed with a the application of Jet Shell, a speed based spell, they used each others bodies as a footing in order to kick off toward another direction in mid-air, quickly vanishing in order to continue on toward their objective. However, instead of actually attacking Aether, the clones were heading elsewhere, as the last remaining seven Santinos spread themselves evenly inside the dome, resulting in two of them placing themselves on top of the roof, two clinging unto the walls, two standing at the base of the dome floor, and the last Santino slipping outside the the large prison. In a simultaneous fashion, each and every one of them began to make a strange hand gesture, crisscrossing their hands together in the form of a prayer. On the outskirts of the massive forest, the one and only Santino was miles away from the actual fight, reemerging in a safe enough distance from where all the fighting was taking place, which was considerably far. Having spent the vast majority of his time gathering magic, Santino was heavily saturated with energy that he had accumulated while he was on the defensive, and converting it into a single spell to cast, "after this...there's no telling what'll happen," grabbing a single vine, he transfers the energy he has and fires into into his colossal forest like, whispering to himself "Terra Clamara..." In the blink of an eye, each and every single tree, plant, and or plant-like organism that made up his territory began to explode, releasing a wave of pure destructive energy that was spreading among the other trees, creating a domino effect throughout the entire landscape. With the entirety of the forest being engulfed in a magical explosion of cataclysmic proportions, it was releasing all the magic stored inside that he had collected up to this point on top of the energy he had expended into building this continuously expanding jungle. At the epicenter of it all was the dome where the rest of his clones and Aether were located in, with the fake doppelganger erupting into explosions themselves that were evenly released from the various corners within the prison they were in. With the dome itself serving as the heart of the the explosion, it to detonated, effectively consuming everything he had built from the start of his fight in one brilliant flash of light.